1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to personal communications systems, and more specifically is directed toward the delivery of short-message services.
2. Related Art
A personal communications services (PCS) system is a mobile service platform that seeks to revolutionize communications by allowing users to call people rather than customer premise equipment. In other words, a PCS subscriber is reachable at a single number regardless of the PCS subscriber""s location within the PCS network. Achieving this flexibility requires an intelligent network that can recognize a location of a subscriber and subsequently route a particular communication service to that location.
A PCS system is generally defined independent of a particular communication service. The communications services supported by PCS include paging, residential cordless telephony, data broadcasting, cellular telephony, mobile data, etc. Customers can subscribe to one or more of these services based upon their individual preferences. These individual preferences should also be recognized by the intelligent network.
The key to success of PCS is the ability to offer a variety of services with different characteristics and different tariff structures. One example is the short-message service. Short-message service is a feature that provides for delivery of up to 160 characters to and from a mobile subscriber. This messaging feature can provide a powerful complement to the high-quality voice mobile service. Numerous applications of the short-message service can be envisioned. Accordingly, what is needed is a short-message service that can be selectively enabled based upon a subscriber""s choice of one of a plurality of unbundled short-message service applications.
In accordance with one aspect, the present invention is directed to a subscriber terminal comprising means for receiving a short message, the short message including a short message type field and a short message data field, means for identifying a short message type based on the short message type field, means for providing short message data contained in said short message data field to logic associated with the short message type, and logic means for providing the short message data according to a procedure for the short message type.
The present invention satisfies the above mentioned needs by providing a personal communication services system that recognizes specific applications within the short-message service option. Each of these unbundled short-message services (e.g., emergency messages, customer service messages, voice mail alert messages, teleadmin service, etc.) are recognized and processed based upon an unbundled short-message service type.
Processing of a short message begins with the reception by a short-message (SM) system of a communication from a short-message entity. This communication includes a short message, a destination subscriber number and an unbundled short-message service type. The short message is stored by the short-message system pending the availability of the destination subscriber.
Prior to determining the availability of the destination subscriber, the short-message system first determines whether the destination subscriber is eligible to receive the short message. In this process, the short-message system interacts with a Home Location Register (HLR) that stores the customer profile for the destination subscriber. In one embodiment, the HLR determines whether the destination subscriber is eligible to receive the general class of short messages and/or the unbundled short-message service type based upon a lookup in the customer profile record.
If the destination subscriber is allowed to receive the unbundled short-message service associated with the unbundled short-message service type, the HLR may perform further processing for the short-message service. For example, in a voice mail alert service, the HLR may identify a pager number if the destination subscriber is unavailable.
If the destination subscriber is available, the short-message system sends a query to the HLR to determine the location of the destination subscriber. The location of the destination subscriber may be identified through addresses for a mobile services center (MSC)/visitor location register (VLR). After these addresses are obtained, the short-message system sends the short message to the MSC/VLR. In a preferred embodiment, the Mobile Application Part protocol is used. Upon receipt, the MSC/VLR forwards the short message to the destination subscriber via a base station.